Celebrity Infidelity Scandal: “Wife’s Father” Begs Media

Ma Yili’s Father Forgives Wen Zhang: I Beg You All to Stop Hounding Us

NetEase Entertainment April 1st report — On the night of March 30th, Wen Zhang posted a statement admitting to having been unfaithful to his wife, and expressed that he would actively work towards making up for it. On the night of March 31st, Wen Zhang again updated his Weibo, calling out the two Southern Metropolis Entertainment Weekly editors Chen Chaohua and Xie Xiao, his first two remarks seemingly begging them: “Dear leaders [general honorific term for people in positions of power/decision-making, referring to the two editors], I was wrong, and the wrong is all on me alone! You two are both parents, may I ask when this can all end [referring to the continued attention the magazine was devoting to his scandal]?” But then his tone turned hard: “If you want to play, play with me, don’t involve anyone else, I’ll play with you! I’m lowly scum and will play with you to the end!” After the Affair-Gate exploded, Wen Zhang has stayed in Shanghai and has not returned home to see Ma Yili. April 1st, Wen Zhang arrived in Beijing from Shanghai. That afternoon, just as Wen Zhang arrived in Beijing, Ma Yili’s father posted a long letter on Weibo, “begging you all to let go of [stop hounding] our family, stop hounding our children.”

Ma Yili’s father’s Weibo account is “Yili’s Father”. His long post was titled “A letter to leaders Chen Chaohua and Xie Xiao”. Among the text: “Several days ago we saw the news and just from the photos themselves, we thought it was just the usual sensationalist hype/gossip and didn’t take it seriously. It wasn’t until Wen Zhang proactively confessed to us admitting to his mistake that we realized it was true. The hurt this mistake has caused our family is easy to imagine.”

He revealed that Ma Yili has already forgiven Wen Zhang: “As long as Wen Zhang genuinely repents, starts afresh, and voluntarily returns to his family, that will be enough and my daughter will take him back, as life still has to be lived.”

Ma Yili’s father says he kept thinking the matter would die down, not expecting that the moment Wen Zhang issued his apology statement, “the two leaders [editors] continued to hound them”. He then called Southern Metropolis Entertainment Weekly into question: “Leader Chen asked Wen Zhang, ‘I don’t understand, what is your intention in posting this Weibo post?” but you people nonetheless specifically did interviews for this very matter, as well as micro-discussions or whatever (actually, I don’t know what this is, I had a younger friend help me open even this Weibo account, and this is my first post), as if you are the supreme judge of our family out to try us in court, even appropriating my daughter’s “to be seized/cherished” to repeatedly make sentences on your Weibo (someone told me this is called ‘Yili style’), so I too want to ask, “I don’t understand, what is your intention in doing all of this?” You people taking all of this out spreading it in the media, is to prove what? It isn’t proper. What is your goal in doing all this? To force them as a couple to get divorced? Or to rid the people of evil?”

[Note: “Yili style” above refers to a new Chinese internet meme where different details are substituted into the structure of Ma Yili’s Weibo post regarding her husband’s infidelity. An example is: “The plane says: Although going missing is easy, finding is not, and is to be seized/cherished.“]

In the end of the letter, Ma Yili’s father describes an incident: “Yesterday, my granddaughter suddenly said to my daughter while eating: Mommy, it says on TV that you and Daddy have already divorced? I wonder what you people as parents would feel upon hearing your own child say something like this?”

The microblog posts by Wen Zhang addressing the Southern Metropolis Entertainment Weekly editors and Ma Yili’s father were the most popular of the day and now also of the week (#3 and #4 of the week, after Wen Zhang’s original apology and Ma Yili’s public comment). Various trending topics and hashtags relating to this scandal continue to be among the most popular on the Sina Weibo microblogging platform (which has also

NetEase Entertainment April 2nd report — After cheating on his wife, Wen Zhang first apologized and then challenged the media, angrily accusing [the media responsible] of being lowly scum. On April 1st (Tuesday), Weibo account “Yili’s Father” also published a long post regarding this matter, on one hand questioning if Southern Metropolis‘s actions were to “sprinkle salt on the wound” and “force the couple to divorce”, and also stating that “Wen Zhang is our son, and when our children make mistakes, the parents are willing to teach them how to change.” With regards to this, many netizens were skeptical, finding the content of the post to be odd, and that perhaps it wasn’t written by Ma Yili’s father himself.

Weibo netizen “娱乐圈揭秘” explosively claimed, “Let me clearly tell everyone, the ‘Yili’s Father’ account is not Ma Yili’s actual father, but rather a public relations company hired by Wen Zhang. According to reliable information from a friend in an advertising company, Wen Zhang has already spent nearly 5 million yuan on public relations in this matter. Water army or not, it can be seen in the comments, because how can there be such bitches [real people] who simultaneously follow a gossip account and seize upon every Weibo post about Wen Zhang to reply ‘what damn business is it of yours when it comes to other people’s family?'”

[Note: The above “water army” refer to suspicions that internet comments sympathetic to Wen Zhang are fabricated and posted usually by a company or organization that offers such services.]

This time the media is not wrong, Southern Metropolis is not wrong. Since Wen Scum is a public figure, however much love he showed off in the past is however much condemnation he deserves now. When he was showing off his love, showing off his “small man” image, how come he didn’t show it off behind closed doors? How come at that time he didn’t say it was all a private matter? That it was a family matter? Now that something bad has happened, he comes out and says it is a family matter, a private matter, bring out all sorts of incoherent moralizing. This is not how you be a person. Since you’ve chosen to be a public figure, you have to take responsibility for your words and actions. Otherwise, what kind of star/celebrity are you? If you rely on the public to make money, are you not making money off your image? If you want to be famous, don’t you also have to rely o the media to help hype you up? Why didn’t you spurn the media’s paparazzi then?

You need to remember, your fame was built on everyone believing the image of you being a good man, because everyone thought that was the true you, but now, we can thank the media for revealing your true character, because they couldn’t bear it any longer. As a man with a wife, a man with children, you being unfaithful will cause people to spurn you, especially when your wife is pregnant. This is shameless infidelity. I wonder when you are with other women if your heart has ever thought about or worried about the wife and the child in her belly at home? Regardless of whether your answer is you have or haven’t, you are already someone who is without conscience and whose morality has withered away.

If it really true that you have offered a huge amount of money to sweep this under the carpet but were rejected, then you need to know that the media are also people with a sense of righteousness, that they truly cannot continue watching and cannot continue tolerating a wife-deceiving and public-deceiving hypocrite! So I thank the media this time, I thank Southern Metropolis for exposing the truth of a moral degenerate and the complete opposite of a “good man”. This time it isn’t the media that has gone too far, but Wen Scum who has gone too far! With regards to this scandal, the media has done well! Let this be a positive warning for those men who have wives and those xiaosan who destroy other people’s families. If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it. The more you do this kind of behavior that is spurned by people around the world, the more you think about it!

I just get annoyed whenever I see news about him now. Before, he was so fucking boastful but now hasn’t he just slapped his own face? And hiring water army, and even using his father-in-law to try getting out of trouble. Those who agree with what I’m saying, give me a ding.

肯德基豪华早餐 [网易山东省青岛市手机网友]：

That the matter has developed to this point has already become the media’s fault, and if it continues to develop, will it become netizens’ fault? MD, just who was it that knocked Wen Zhang out and lifted him onto Yao Di’s bed? Hurry and show yourself! Stop slandering a good husband, a good father, and a good son-in-law!!!

网易湖南省长沙市手机网友 ip：220.202.*.*:

Let me first speak on behalf of Wen Zhang’s water army: a man being unfaithful is very normal; it is the ruthless media that is violating people’s privacy; he has a child and you guys are tearing apart his family; what damn business is it of yours when it comes to other people’s family; if you have the skills, how much better it would be if you went and exposed those corrupt officials; have you found the Malaysia Airlines plane, is over 200 lives not more important than this?

Fauna is a mysterious young Shanghainese girl who lives in the only place a Shanghainese person would ever want to live: Shanghai. In mid-2008, she started chinaSMACK to combine her hobby of browsing Chinese internet forums with her goal of improving her English. Through her tireless translation of popular Chinese internet news and phenomenon, her English has apparently gotten dramatically better. At least, reading and writing-wise. Unfortunately, she's still not confident enough to have written this bio, about herself, by herself.